Followed By Mercy

Stop Polishing Your Binoculars for Other People's Sins

• W. Austin Gardner

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Our eyes reveal the condition of our hearts. When we measure ourselves against others, searching for someone “worse” to feel better about ourselves, we slip into what Jesus called an “evil eye.” This perspective is fueled by pride and fear, pride that elevates us above others and fear that, without comparison, we may not measure up.


In this conversation, Austin Gardner and Robert Canfield look at Jesus’ vivid illustration in Matthew 7:3-5 about removing a speck from someone else’s eye while ignoring the beam in our own. His exaggerated picture drives home a powerful truth: we are quick to judge others while remaining blind to our own need for grace. But the answer is not becoming sharper critics, it is turning our eyes toward Christ.


Christianity was never meant to be built on fear and performance. It is not mainly “anti-sin” but “pro-Savior.” When we fixate on the failures of others, we lose sight of the One who already bore our sins and declared us loved. True freedom comes when we stop comparing, stop competing, and start resting in Christ’s finished work.


As the hosts remind us, fear and insecurity often fuel our critical spirit, but perfect love casts out fear. Jesus Himself modeled this love as He prayed for His executioners, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” If He could extend such grace, how much more should we extend compassion to our brothers and sisters in Christ?


This episode calls us to set our eyes on things above, to run our own race without distraction, and to let love be the guiding principle in every relationship. If you are weary of judgment, comparison, or division, listen in and rediscover the healing power of love that restores our vision and unites us in Christ.

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Austin Gardner:

Welcome back. Welcome back to, followed by Mercy. I really just want you to know how good God is. I have made it the goal of my life these last years that I have. I just turned 71. I'm just asking God to let me know Him better than I've ever known Him before, because he wants to know me. It's always been me hindering any of that. It's Him that's chasing me down with goodness and mercy, and I want to know him and I want to tell you about him, and so I want you to love my father, I want you to know him, and so, as we were talking, robert, in the last podcast, I got some things to talk about.

Robert Canfield:

Go ahead, no, you were talking about the previous podcast, about how God, our distorted view of God and I'm trying to backtrack my mind to make sure I remember it all and so how we think everything relies on us because we can't really trust Him, and we talk about stuff like that and we compare ourselves with other people. And I think when we compare ourselves with other people it usually comes from a lifted up heart.

Austin Gardner:

A prideful heart. It's easy to get a lifted up heart when you've got an evil eye because you're looking at things.

Robert Canfield:

You're looking at things. I think it's easy to have an evil eye when you have a lifted up heart, yep.

Austin Gardner:

I think it's a vicious circle. It goes all the way around, I think you're probably right.

Robert Canfield:

So I've got this lifted, this puffed up view of myself where I feel like I had to build myself up to be something that it's not really true.

Austin Gardner:

That's why we need so many social media likes.

Robert Canfield:

That's why you said you always like to go to the buffet with me. Why was that? I don't think I said that. No, I'm just picking on you, I'm giving you a hard time. Sometimes it's a lot easier to do if I could just find somebody a little bit bigger than me. Then I'll go to the buffet. Yeah, I've always had this little fat problem.

Austin Gardner:

I was living in Peru. They'd always call me fat and gordo, and so I used to love to come back to America. And I'd come back to America and I'd go down to the Golden Corral or the Ryan's Buffet and I'd say you think I'm fat? That's fat Exactly, because that's what the evil eye does it does, does it not, but it comes from a sense of like.

Robert Canfield:

I have to feel like I'm better than other people or I'm not as worse off as they are.

Austin Gardner:

Well, I think it's pride, but it's also fear, because if they're as good as me, I ain't that good. You know, you don't know this yet, you don't know this, but you will. But you can be sitting at a. You know, you read about the couple sitting at their restaurant and he looks at his wife and says good night, honey. Don't look now. But them two people are old. We're going to be like that one day. I think maybe we're going to be that old. She looks at him and says honey, that's our mirror. All of a sudden you realize you know what you talk about. Fat people talk about. Because I'm fat, I can say this, but we talk about. We say, well, I'm not as fat as he is and I don't ever want to compare myself to skinny people. Lord, help me, jesus. It's their genes.

Austin Gardner:

They can't help it yeah yeah, they have a high metabolism and old, old, no, I say, look at them. And then I realized, man, if I'm thinking about that, then somebody's thinking about me. But the whole point is it's the evil eye. We've got to get our eye under control. What are we looking at? We're going to be looking at Jesus. That kind of leads us into Matthew 7, 3 through 5.

Austin Gardner:

Unless you've got more, you want to say right there, no, no, we're good, I'm going to go there, because why beholdest thou the moat that's in thy brother's eye and considerest not the beam in your own eye? In other words, we are the biggest fault finders. I mean, we are Pharisees on steroids because we need to find out about the other. The beam is a huge load-bearing plank, it's not a splinter, and Jesus is painting an absurd picture. He's making his point unforgettable. It's hyperbole, it's exaggeration. So it'll stick in your mind, it'll make everybody laugh when they hear it. But then they've got to stop and think you see, what do you think the beam represents? I think it's. Whatever irritates me, I see it in you. So it's just irritation, I don't know. I think the whole point is I am not seeing my sin, I'm seeing your sin, without realizing I got the sin.

Robert Canfield:

So when we say the beam, it's sin, right? Can I ask you a question? I'm just going to prod your mind and see what your theological states are oh, don't get me, we'll be in trouble. Okay. So how do you get rid of sin in your life?

Robert Canfield:

I find it in other people's lives so I can find a way to blame it on them. It's a serious question. How do we eradicate sin from our life? Go ahead. I don't know how I can eradicate sin from my life other than allowing Jesus to take my sin and to pay the payment and take it away. He's the one that mortified, he killed it, he destroyed it, right.

Austin Gardner:

Or am.

Robert Canfield:

I wrong in that thinking.

Austin Gardner:

God hates sin, and he hates sin because it's what hurts us. If you want to think about this, we enjoy finding sin and weakness in other people. God hates all of it Because God loves every one of us, all the world. God so loved the world. Did you know? He didn't count their sins, he didn't impute their sins to the world. He set the sins aside and he loved them. He's the Savior of all men, especially those that bleed.

Robert Canfield:

He said he who knew no sin became sin. That we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Austin Gardner:

So he takes all of our pain, all of our hurt. God hates sin, like a farmer hates weeds, and insects are killing his crop, yeah.

Robert Canfield:

And the great thing about the Scripture is is that Jesus says I've taken it away.

Austin Gardner:

He put it all on himself. Isn't that what the good news is? He took it all to the cross and it's all paid for for every human being everywhere, If they'll just accept the gift.

Robert Canfield:

And not only, and so when we, when we, when Jesus is saying this, I really do believe the beam and the moat is sin, and so what we're doing is we're focusing in on sin, and she's like get rid of your own sin. So the question is how do you get rid of sin? I only get rid of it going to Him, look to.

Robert Canfield:

Jesus, and so I see this stuff. We like to nitpick people. In reality, I should be worried about my own sin, and the question is how do I eradicate my own sin, because I turned to the Lord.

Austin Gardner:

I got to go on to Him, jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. He started our faith, he wrote the salvation plan, he finished the salvation plan. Stop looking at other people, stop looking at yourself, stop looking at sin and start focusing in on Jesus, and you just brought up Hebrews 12, right, looking unto Jesus, hebrews 12.

Robert Canfield:

Of Jesus, and that you just brought up Hebrews 12, right, looking unto Jesus, hebrews 12. And I think I preached a message and I saw this at a Hebrews I think it was Hebrews 12, was it 15? When he says these words I'm going to pop this up he says looking diligently lest any man fail the grace of God. Any root of bitterness spring up trouble you and thereby many to be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane persons as Esau, one who for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright.

Robert Canfield:

So I thought that and I was like man so many times people look and like I can't feel the grace of God. I can't feel the grace of God. I don't want to let this bitterness pop up in my life. I don't want to let this bitterness defile me. I don't want to fornicate. I don't want to look at pornography. I don't want to do this. I don't want to take the things that God's given me. I don't want to squander it. And they focus in on the negative and he says looking diligently. In the last podcast you talked about the law first mentioned, and in Hebrews 12, he tells us where our eyes should be at.

Austin Gardner:

That's the same place that would have been in Matthew 6 that we looked at, because a single eye would be looking to the Lord, looking to Jesus.

Robert Canfield:

It's turning your eyes on Jesus.

Austin Gardner:

Where does that sheep in Psalm 23 keep his eyes On the master. He keeps his eyes on that shepherd. Where does everything come from? The Lord is my shepherd. Because he is my shepherd, I shall not want the question is is how are we going to get to heaven?

Robert Canfield:

The only way I get to heaven is what Jesus has done. Only way I get it is through faith in what Jesus has already did. And, like I said, remember what you said 20 some years ago just revolutionized my mind. We trust him with our eternity. It's like don't you think you can trust Him with the now? And the Bible says that as you received Him, so walk ye in Him. And so I received Him by faith, looking to Jesus and what Jesus has done in my life.

Robert Canfield:

So while I'm here on earth, you know how I live out the Christian life. I just look to Jesus and I look to Him and my eyes are focused on Him and my eyes are saying I need you today. I know you're here. I know you're here, I know you're with me. You never left me. Hey, we need to get through this. I need to get through this. Give me the strength when your eyes are focused in on Jesus, I'm not focused in on anybody else. I mean, right, you can only have a single eye. I mean, unless you got messed up vision, you got double vision, but we are supposed to be focused in on Him and you can't focus in on other people's sin and be focused in on Jesus.

Austin Gardner:

Which, honestly, I think maybe I ought to speak to all of our hearts. See, we hate sin, but we've turned that into hate. In the center we are so—Christianity has become the anti-sin, when it's supposed to be the pro-savior, it's supposed to be the good news. Jesus has taken care of sin, which I think is wonderful. I know Psalm 23 again, but it says he anointeth my head with oil and that man, he lifts my head, he restores me, he looks me in the face and says you don't have to grovel before me, I have paid the sin debt, it is all taken care of. And he leeches down in Psalm, chapter 3, maybe verse 4. I can't remember, but I'll get that portion in a minute. But he says he's a lifter of my head, he's saying to me look me in the face. I took care of sin and we are so focused that we ought to hate sin, but we hate sin because it hurts us Well, sin is in the other opposite view or in the upper other opposite way of where Jesus is.

Robert Canfield:

So it's like I'm looking to Jesus, I'm not looking at sin, I'm not looking at my wants, I'm not looking at the desires. I'm not looking at that. I'm looking at what God wants and my heart's strung to him, it's tied to him, and when that happens, if I see somebody else stumble, I'm like oh, hey, buddy, hey, buddy, hey, let's look back here. Let's look back here, and you do it with meekness and you do it with kindness, and you don't look at people as beneath you. You look at them the way God looked at them. That's his creation. They are image bearers of God.

Austin Gardner:

Well, I 100% agree. By the way, the verse was Psalm chapter 3 and verse 3. Thou, o Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the lifter up of my head. But what you just said, what was that last part again? Give it to me one more time.

Robert Canfield:

I don't know if I can remember that, but I was talking about looking at other people and how, if they fail, we've got to be meek and the restoration is looking this way and we don't look down on other people because we realize that they're image bearers of God.

Austin Gardner:

I'm back with you now. See, there are old men. We lose our train of thought. I think there's two things maybe that there's so much fighting among God's people and so much negativity one towards the other. I've been guilty of it much of my life. I thought that was the right way to do it. But Paul told Timothy. He said you love that old man like he's your daddy. You love that old woman like she's your mama. You love that young man like he's your brother. You love that young lady like she's your sister. Do you realize, robert, your brother? You have that young lady like she's your sister.

Austin Gardner:

Do you realize, Robert, that the people that hurt you and attack you and challenge you and make fun of you and have tried to hurt you are your brother or your sister? And they got the same father and our father loves them as much as he loves us. And he doesn't look at us and say I'm going to kill your brother. He's not going to kill our brother, he's not going to hurt our brother. The fact is he knows. That's why I'm supposed to say forgive them. They don't know what you're doing. I'm supposed to say I'm not really wrestling against my brother, I'm not wrestling against flesh and blood. I know that's the devil and I'm not fighting the devil. I'm not fighting the devil. I mean I'm not fighting him, I'm fighting the devil. And what we end up doing is we so focus on other brothers that we become abusive, almost.

Robert Canfield:

Why would we want to be abusive? I don't think people intentionally do it. Probably I agree.

Austin Gardner:

I don't think it's intentional? Intentionally do it probably. I agree I don't think it's intentional, but I do think that many of us build our worth on how we compare, and so it's like I am maybe better than him because I don't do what he does.

Robert Canfield:

Well, that sounds like a works-based religion.

Austin Gardner:

I've tried to start calling a works-based religion. I've tried to start calling it performance-based religion. It's like you really do think that you got to do certain things for God to love you and you didn't do anything to get him to love you in the beginning and you don't do anything to make him love you now. If you need an enemy to fight, it ought to be the devil. It ought not be the devil. It ought not be your brother. It ought not be some other Christian.

Robert Canfield:

Go ahead. No, and I find in my life that when I start fixating on a person or a sin, it's usually because of a fear in my own heart. Or sin, it's usually because of a fear in my own heart, a fear of I'm going to lose something, a fear of I just fear. And it has torment, at least in me. I don't know about anybody else, because all I can think of it consumes my thoughts, it consumes my mind and it's like and it's not peaceful. Does that make sense? You follow me on that one? That's what I mean by torment. It's they did me this way, they did this and this and this, and what happens if this happens, and I've got to prepare for this, and it's so much fear. And perfect love casts out fear, does it not? And when my eyes are focused in on the perfect love, I learn to just trust Him and whatever comes, wherever my lot happens, it was Him.

Austin Gardner:

I think fear is much of what's going on. We're afraid we're going to lose our morality. We're afraid that people are going to walk away from God. A lot of times we are trying to make people earn their salvation. We don't mean to. That's not our real heart. But it's like if you really are saved, you'll do what I say do, and I don't think we do it. I think the attitude of the heart may be right, but the action is definitely detrimental to the kingdom and to God that we would do that. The Holy Spirit is the one who cleans us up.

Robert Canfield:

If it's fear that's the attitude, then I think the attitude's wrong, Because I look at things. I don't know, maybe I'm not perfect, I'm setting myself up as a standard, right, but like fear has torment, there is no place of fear in leadership. You can't have fear in leadership. You can be afraid, but you can't let that fear dictate. You got to be of courage, right, and there's got to be a trust in God and just like. I don't know. I'm probably rambling on a little bit out of this stuff, but I think so many times when I fixate on other people, it's usually brought about because I'm afraid insecurity makes me point out the failures of another person.

Austin Gardner:

I I want to make sure you know who I am and how good I am. I can't be forgotten, and you know it was all me. In first corinthians 13 he said uh, love doesn't fear, love doesn't compare, love doesn't get jealous of love doesn't envy. Love believes all things and hopes all things and endures all things. But that's not the love that we've been expressing as Christians.

Austin Gardner:

I think some verses that are important Romans 2, 1 says Therefore, thou art inexcusable, o man, whosoever thou art that judges, for when thou judges, I condemnest thyself Because you do the same thing. And often we fight because in our heart we have a tendency towards that. We're almost fighting with our own problem when we fight the problem, because I'm afraid that might get me, and so I fight it and so I become obsessed with it and we want to be careful that that's not who we are. The Bible says in Titus 1.15, under the pure all things are pure, but under them that are defiled. Unbelieving is nothing pure. Even their mind and conscience is defiled. So once we get so focused on how God's done a work in us, we wait for God to do a work in others and we're not. So we're focused on his purity and on him and not looking around to find fault with others. That's not who we are. We came out of that palace forgiven and we're not going to meet our friend and choke him out.

Robert Canfield:

You think about, like when Jesus was on the cross and he was dying just to go back to it, and he looked out and the people were mocking him. They're spitting on him. They're blaspheming God and his prayer wasn't God, do vengeance, anditting on them. They're blaspheming God and his prayer wasn't God, do vengeance and justice on them. It was God forgive them, for they know not what they do. It was a heart out of pure love.

Austin Gardner:

And I'll be honest with you, from my point of view, they did know what they were doing. They had met, they had listened, they had watched Him and they did know they saw the miracles. And yet Jesus still, because we think, okay, they didn't know what they were doing to Jesus, but they know what they're doing to me, I mean.

Robert Canfield:

I don't know how they could I don't know in what courtroom would hold the evidence that they were able to see. They saw dead people come back to life. They saw men that were blind for 40 years and they had no answer for it and they knew he was of God. They knew it but they didn't want him and this was brought about because of the evilness and the wickedness in their heart, and it was pushed by a wicked group of religious leaders that didn't want to lose face and lose power and lose their cash cow, for worse term to say. And Jesus looked at those people and he could still say they don't understand what they're doing. And that, to me, blows my mind because that shows that his focus, he knew that the God of this world had blinded their minds and their eyes.

Robert Canfield:

And so many times when I look at another brother, a brother that failed, or I look at a person that's wicked, and I think that, man, they just need justice, they need vengeance, or they need this or that. What they really need is an eye awakening. They need an eye opening, they need a change of mind that can only be brought about by one. It can't be brought about by flesh and blood. It's got to be brought about by the God of heaven, and my prayers are more like God do vengeance and do justice on them than it is. God, open their eyes, help them see. It's not a contrite heart, a heart of meekness, of realizing where I was and saying God, they need to be changed too. It's nothing like that at all, because, like you said back at the beginning of the first podcast that we talked about, I've got an evil eye.

Austin Gardner:

Well, that evil eye is blinded because of the bitterness we've let creep in.

Austin Gardner:

So we're bitter because we are afraid, we're hurting and we don't see things clearly because of where we are, and we need to forgive and get some things out of our hearts. We need to stop polishing the binoculars that we use to look at other people's sins. And you know, I'll end with this. It says if you then be risen with Christ, if this is true about you, then seek things which are above. Seek things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on the earth. If you are dead and your life is here with Christ in God, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. So I would just challenge us all to get a single eye. We need to focus on the Lord. Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, not on earth. And sometimes maybe we're a little bit like the Pharisees, finding who we can condemn, who we can speak evil of, to feel good about ourselves, when a single eye would fix that, oh man.

Robert Canfield:

That would solve all of our problems, and I'm looking for that.

Austin Gardner:

I don't know if it'd solve them all, but I know that I lived a lot of my life wondering what people thought when they looked at me and then thinking of what I thought when I looked at them. And Jesus is sitting over in a corner going look at me, Didn't?

Robert Canfield:

the apostles have the same problem. Yeah, didn't Peter have that same problem there whenever he was at Antioch? I believe it was Antioch, right, yeah?

Austin Gardner:

Relations to yeah.

Robert Canfield:

When he talks about that, he was seeing how the other people saw. It's an issue that everyone deals with.

Austin Gardner:

I feel like We've been dealing with it all, so let's focus on Jesus. What's Hebrews 12?

Robert Canfield:

Looking under Jesus. Puestos los ojos. Looking under Jesus.

Austin Gardner:

the author Looking under Jesus, Looking under Jesus. What are you looking at, man? By the way, in Hebrews 12, 1, you're to run the race set before you and really you're not the guy that's judging the runner in the lane next to you.

Robert Canfield:

I don't need to judge what track he's on, I just need to focus in on my stink and whatever's in front of me my lane, like you said.

Austin Gardner:

And I understand that pastors are trying to get their church people not to fall into sin and we ought to teach and preach it in that way. But sometimes I think going on social media and just tearing each other down doesn't honor God that much social media and just tearing each other down doesn't honor God that much when we live that way.

Robert Canfield:

I view this If I've got issues at home, I don't broadcast them to the public. I deal with the issues at home. If I've got an issue with a brother, I go to that brother and if he's not willing to listen, then I take another person with me and I think we take issues that are family issues and we broadcast things way too much, and I know what they're trying to think. I know the verses they use. We're supposed to rebuke an elder before all, but that's not what. That's not what Paul was telling Timothy, and I know what they're trying to think. I know the verses they use. Well, we're supposed to rebuke an elder before all, but that's not what Paul was telling Timothy. That's not the sin that we were talking about. We're talking about a different gospel. We're talking about people that are leading people astray. I mean, we can go into that some other time, but I think that sometimes the issues at home just need to be dealt with at home and people just need to be dealt with at home and people just need to.

Robert Canfield:

One good friend told me they said whenever they had a problem at the house, dad would sit everybody around the table and say, okay, let's go fix this, let's fix this. And if I have an issue with my brother and it's really a big issue then I need to go to the brother. I don't need to go to somebody else to talk about it. It's one thing I've learned from you. You always say don't talk to me about other people Unless you want me to call them up right now.

Robert Canfield:

I remember you'd say that Don't try to change my perspective on this person. I remember you told me that I worked with you 15, well over a decade almost 20 years now and you've been very you've helped me see that need Like if I have an issue, I just need to go to the brother. We need to fix this thing out and if I'm following Jesus, I can't be looking back and seeing what people have done in the past. I can't be looking back and seeing what other people are doing and seeing how they're running. I've got my own race before me, like you said, but I understand sometimes people feel like they got the I guess the gift of being a prophet to call out people's sins. But I'll just keep my mouth shut.

Austin Gardner:

Well, I think that here's what we can all go home with. Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven. So it's not about how you compare to the brother that's beside you. You can only serve one master. It's not you, it's not the church, it's the Lord Jesus. So keep your eyes on him, amen, look to him, seek the things that are above and let's react in love. You know, in 1 Corinthians 12, last verse, he says I'm telling you guys, there's a better way to handle our divisions. And then he introduces chapter 13, which is love, and so that ought to be the centerpiece. Well, thank you'all for listening. I hope that this has been somewhat enlightening and a blessing to you, and we will be back with you later.

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